End of the Line

It should come as no surprise that I've decided to end my story here. It's harder to find the time to post, and even harder to find the motivation for it. Thank you all for sharing my adventures of being a new, small-business owner. It's been interesting - and FUN!!

Another Day in Paradise

After a long day of doing nothing but eating, reading and sleeping, I guess I can muster up the energy to post:-) Let's face it, when you're on vacation, you shouldn't feel pressure to do anything, right? Well, so far, it's working! I should be working on the Furfection newsletter, but I can't focus on work stuff right now.

Mr. Furfection and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to Maui. I don't think either of us has ever fallen into "vacation mode" so easily. Could be because we aren't having to get up to let the dogs out, or getting up to let them in, or feeding them, or feeding the cats, or scooping the litter box, or walking the dogs, or fighting traffic to get anywhere...well, you get the picture.

After a long-delayed spring with record-setting rainfall in California, it's great to be where it's sunny and warm. It's rained a bit the past couple of days, but only for a few minutes.

Poor Casey didn't eat for almost 2 days after we left home. Even tho his favorite "auntie" is caring for the furkids, he was still too depressed. Fortunately, hunger got the best of him and he started eating. Who knew we had such a "sensitive" dog/child??

Furfection orders are still coming in as I sit here in paradise. I immediately email the customer to let them know I'm out of town and will ship their order first thing next Monday. It would be GREAT to go home to a whole stack of 'em!

Oh, bummer...I've run out of energy for typing already;-) To be continued...

Blonde Genius

The respiratory infection is gone. No more coughing. 90 percent of my voice is back. Woo-hoo!! Hope I never have that again!!

Busy week, but mostly spent on the phone with tech support at Palm. I decided to downsize my Palm because the one I had when I worked at X Company was overkill. I don't need a camera; I don't need an MP3 player; I just needed an address book and calendar. I found a "basic" Palm at Office Depot, called Z22. It weighs nothing, which is exactly what I wanted. (I downsized purses, too. Smaller is better these days.)

Got the Palm home, tried to install the software, but the CD wouldn't open. Poop. I tried for over on hour, using every backdoor method I could think of, but that sucker was NOT going to install anything. Next morning I called Palm tech support. After suggesting that I try everything I had already tried, Mr. Loser Tech Support told me to take it back to the store and get a new one. I asked why he couldn't just send me a new CD, and he said that if the CD was defective, the Palm probably was, too. Huh? How stupid is THAT?

Took it back and exchanged it the next day, got it home, tried to install the software, and had the exact same problem: The CD would not open. Poop. Again I tried everything I knew to get it open, but nothing worked. I went to the Palm discussion forums and discovered MANY people had the problem, and they'd been charged $20 by Palm for new disks. Sorry, ain't hap'n'.

I called tech support again, and a very nice lady tried to help me install the CD. We worked for over an hour, and nothing worked. While we trying different tricks, I asked if she had any idea about the number of posts on Palm's website about this issue. She sighed and said, "Yes, I'm aware. We're putting the finishing touches on a solution, but it's not ready yet. Finally she said she was escalating my problem to an engineer. They would call me the next day at 3, after they'd had a chance to recreate the problem.

They actually called at 3:30, but at least they called. Another 45 minutes on the phone, trying all kinds of workarounds, to no avail. Finally Ms. Tech Support said she wanted to try something on her own computer to see if it would work. When she was finished, she'd call me back. In the interim, the blonde brain started crackling. I didn't need EVERYTHING on the CD. I could download the actual software from the Palm website. What I couldn't get was the application that allowed me to sync my Palm with Outlook. Hmmm...

So Ms. Tech Support called back and said she had bad news; her idea hadn't worked. So I asked her a few questions....

Me: I still have my CD from my old Palm. Couldn't I download what I needed from that??

She: Well, you could, but it's outdated and probably won't work.

Me: It couldn't hurt anything to try, right?

She: No, it couldn't hurt.

Me: OK, I'm gonna try it. Wanna call me back in half an hour to see if it works?

She: No, I'd rather stay on the phone while you try. I'm really curious about this.

Me: OK.

So I dug through all my application CDs to find what I needed. (Why do I keep old CDs? Why am I afraid to throw them out??? Question for next therapy visit.) I found the disk, found the file I needed, and I installed it. Ms. Tech Support asked if she could put me on hold for a minute, which was OK. While she was gone, I installed the application I needed, held my breath while I tried to sync the Palm and the computer, and OMG it worked!!!!!!! Smiling all the while, I configured the Palm with my preferences, etc.

Ms. Tech Support came back on the line and asked what had happened.

Me: It worked. I'm all synced and I'm a very happy camper:-)

She: WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING???

Me: Nope. It really does work. All the info is now on my Palm, and it looks great.

She: I can't believe this. Do you have any idea what you've done?

Me: I synced my Palm???

She: No! You've just solved a major problem. Do you know how many people need this??

Me: Well, after visiting the discussion forums, I have a pretty good idea.

She: This is great! I can't thank you enough!

Me: Well, thank YOU for hanging in there with me, trying to solve this issue.

OK, so I'm a blonde genius. I can live with that;-)

Sounds of Silence

Can you say, "Week from hell"?? I just had one. Unfortunately, it's not over yet. Last Wednesday, I woke up with no voice and a terrible sore throat. (Yes, I'm sure Mr. Furfection was pleased about my silence, although I didn't ask him.) I called my internist to see if she could get me in that day to rule out strep. Sorry (even though I've been her patient for over 10 years), she couldn't fit me in. Her receptionist suggested I go to Urgent Care.

Next, I called my Gyn., who is also in internist. Their office is closed on Wednesdays. Damn. So I drove myself to Urgent Care, where I was told the wait would be one hour and 45 minutes. Uh... I don't think so. Then I remembered I also have an ear, nose and throat specialist. Duh. I called from the Urgent Care lobby and was told to come right in.

Mr. ENT diagnosed me with having a viral respiratory infection. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done for it, except to take antibiotics to prevent a secondary infection, and for me not to try to talk. I have knee implants in both knees, and I have to make sure an infection never gets the chance to set itself up in those implants. If it did, my titanium knees would have to come out, and I would have to lie in a hospital bed with an IV antibiotic until the infection cleared, then the implants would have to go back in. In a few words: It ain't gonna happen. I'd rather have a root canal without anesthesia than to have that surgery again. (According to James Frey, it's doable;-)

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I've had no voice. Today is only slightly better, but hey, it's an improvement! I still don't feel up to running any marathons. But then, I never did.

I've learned the boys do NOT like it when I whisper. I asked Bono if he wanted to go outside, and he looked at me like, "Not with you, lady!!" then he ran upstairs to Mr. Furfection. So much for loyalty:-/

Yesterday, I received a FedEx package from my last employer. It seems a laptop containing all the employees' 401K info was stolen, so they wanted to make me aware. Gee thanks. I called Equifax and put a fraud alert on both my and Mr. Furfection's credit reports. It lasts 90 days, and they will automatically pass the info to the other two reporting agencies.

No sooner had I taken care of that, I got an email from the phone company, saying my monthly bill was ready to view. Hello?? $375 for one month?? I don't think so. I was charged almost $275 for a 90-minute call to my sis in Tasmania, even tho I have an international calling plan. So I called AT&TSBCAT&T (they've changed names so many times, even they don't know who they are) and explained the problem. (Try doing that with no voice. It's quite the trick.) They had no record of my having the international plan until they looked way back into my account. The rep was nice enough, and he reversed over $250 of the charges.

Most of yesterday afternoon was spent moving all the Ask the Vet questions and answers to the new pages that contain a search engine. Visitors will be able to type in a keyword to check for any existing info in the Furfection database. Considering how many questions we've acquired in the past year, this is a great feature.

When I finished copying everything over, I sent Ms. Programmer an IM, telling her the pages were ready to "go live." A short while later, she IM'ed me to say her assistant had accidentally deleted ALL THE INFO I'd spent all afternoon entering. OMG. She also said he would be reentering it on his own time. Hey, no problem. As long as it's ready to use in time for next month's newsletter, which will go out next week.

Ms. Embroiderer is working on the new doggie towels (blue this time). She also has the doggie bath robes, but we decided against putting the logo on those. Obviously I can sell them for less if I don't add the embroidery. Casey and Bono will be the models for the bath robes when they have their next bath. (Sssshhhh...I don't want them to know ahead of time.)

It's time for Ms. Sickie to move away from the computer and take a break. Maybe I'll have my voice back by the time I post again. But then...how would you know??? ;-)

The Look of (Puppy) Love

The answer to your question is, "Because there hasn't been anything worth blogging about!" OK...now that that's out of the way.

The recurring case of the herniated/ruptured disk continues. The past three weeks have been a bit more hell on earth. So far, I've been to the doctor; to physical therapy 3X; to the chiro 2X, and had a 90-minute deep tissue massage. It wasn't until yesterday that my back started to feel the least bit better. If you've had back pain, you know what it's like to be in chronic pain. It affects every aspect of your life, not the least being your disposition. I did discover that the more I could lie down, the less my back hurt, so I've been doing lots of that. Let's hope the worst is over, at least for this round;-)

There's an eye doctor next door to my chiro, and one day I had a few minutes to kill, so I went in to check out their frames. Of course, I found some I REALLY liked, so I asked if I could take them on consignment. They let me, and I took them with me to PT yesterday to ask for opinions. Everyone liked the new frames, so that was cool.

I did a check online to see if anyone else sold the frames, and I'll be danged if they weren't almost half the eye doctor's price. Hello? Talk about SAVINGS! So I've ordered the frames online, and when they arrive, I'll take them to my optician for lenses. I know they won't like that I bought the frames elsewhere, but c'mon. Who in their right mind wouldn't opt to save over $100???

Today I took one of my best photos EVER of Bono. The little heartbreaker is just too cute for words. He was watching me put on mascara, and he had the sweetest look on his face. Definitely a Kodak moment, don't you think?

Bono's "Look of Love"

A woman from Canada called a few days ago. She was almost in tears as she told me about her poodle. She had recently switched pet shampoos and the dog's fur was coming out in clumps. To make matters even worse, the dog is a $3000 show dog. She took it to the vet, and the vet said the dog had a definite allergy to something in the shampoo. He recommended Furfection to her!! How a vet in Canada knows about us, I have no idea, but it's very cool. Anyway, the woman and her husband have decided to sue the shampoo maker. Glad it's not me!!

It continues to rain in the SF Bay Area. We might get a really nice, sunny day, just enough to convince us to wash our cars (which I did), then it'll rain again the next day. Enough is enough. And BTW, where IS Noah when you need him??

My "Red Rocket" has been in the shop again. For 4-6 weeks, my "Check coolant level" light would come on, then I'd fill the radiator. Then a few days later, the light would come on again, but it was intermittent. I told my friend, Mr. Auto Expert, who wanted to take a look under the hood. When we did, there was something white, sprayed all over the right side of the engine. Uh-oh. So I drove straight to Mr. Mechanic, who showed me the radiator leak. He wouldn't even let me drive the car home; he kept it and drove me home in his car. He called later that afternoon to tell me it would be $5500 for a new radiator. Oh alright. So I'm exaggerating. It was $525, but STILL....

While my car was in the shop, I got a wild hair about wanting an SUV. Mr. Furfection has one as his company car, and I like how it rides so much higher than my car. So I did some research and narrowed down my choice to an Acura. I seriously looked for all of one day. Then Mr. Mechanic called to say my car was ready. When I picked it up, he said, "You must have a lot of fun driving that car." I asked why he thought that. He said that just in the short distance he'd driven it, he could feel how powerful it was. (Well, yeah. It IS an 8-cylinder.) As soon as I got in the car to bring it home, I realized I wasn't ready to get rid of it. I even felt a tiny bit guilty for even THINKING about it. (sigh)

Bono Bear is now 1-year-old, and he's STILL not house trained. No sooner than I clean up a yellow stain on the carpet, there'll be another one close by. At this point, I want the carpet OUT of the house. So, once spring finally does arrive, I've decided to have hardwood floors put in downstairs. What a nightmare that will be, moving everything out of the living and dining rooms. I think we'll also have to stay in a motel for three days while they do the staining. (That's what I've been told, anyway.) I can picture it now: Mr. and Mrs. Furfection, along with their two cats and two dogs check into a Residence Inn. We'll all need intense therapy afterward, or maybe even during. I can't think about it for very long or I start freaking out. (I hate disarray.)

Have you seen the new name tags at Furfection? I've been asked for St. Francis medals more than once, and now we have them. There are lots of other styles, too, so go check 'em out! Next up: Doggie Bath Robes. They're at the embroiderer now. OMG, they're so cool!

Rocket Woman

OK. Here's the final installment in the investment company story. We had the appointment to talk on Tuesday, and the woman starts by retelling her "being rushed to the hospital" story. I'd already heard it, so I kept trying to change the subject and get her to move on, to no avail. Finally, she asks me what my company does. (My evil twin, "Leann," started rearing her head. I HATE it when people haven't done their homework before calling.) I asked her if she'd seen my website. She said she had.

I: Then you know we're an online pet boutique.
She: OH! A pet boutique! Oh, that's cool!
I: (Silence)
She: So do you have any products that are yours alone?
I: Yes. All the shampoos and conditioner are mine, and you can't get them anywhere else.
She: Oh? Really?
I: Yes.
She: So, tell me why you started your company.
Leann: I have to be honest and tell you this type of thing really irritates me.
She: What do you mean?
Leann: When people want to talk to me about my business, I expect them to have done their research ahead of time, like going through my complete website so I don't have to spend time repeating what's already there.
She: (Very indignantly) Does your website tell how and why you STARTED your company?
Leann: Yes, it does. On the home page is a link to "About Furfection."
She: Oh. But I want to hear it from YOU. I want to hear the PASSION in your voice about what you do.
Leann: (Lucky for her, she will not get to experience my "real" passion right now, cuz I'd be telling her to ef off.)
Leann: I did visit your website, and I saw that you do infomercials. The truth is, I get calls like this all the time, and I'm not interested in doing an infomercial.
She: (Very huffily) Well, you haven't gotten calls from US before, but I guess this interview is over.
Leann: Yeah, I guess. (Click)

After getting bids from three SiteBuildIt! webmasters to build me a new site, I decided against doing it. As luck would have it, I stumbled onto a site (I never know how I end up in some of these places, but they're always just what I need, when I need them.) that offered different tools for optimizing websites for search engines. Hello?? That's exactly what I was after! And they're a lot less than the $1500+ it would have taken to rebuild my site.

So I started using the SEO tool last night, and it suggested so many changes to the Furfection homepage - most of them on the back-end so visitors wouldn't notice. In addition to their tools, they have an incredible archive of their HTML newsletters with more info than I could read in a lifetime (probably). Everything is so interesting, because this is the type of work I enjoy more than anything. I could be perfectly happy sitting in front of my computer for the rest of my life...as long as someone would bring me the occasional latte;-)

Casey and Bono were evaluated for doggie daycare at PetSmart this week. I'm sad to report, Casey flunked. Yes, Mr. Congeniality himself. The problem was that he was shy around the pack of 10 little dogs that came to greet him when he was introduced to them. Bono wasn't much better, but at least he passed. I need to bring Case back every couple of days so he can get used to the place (which he will). I know they both would love playing with other dogs their size if they move past the shyness. My little mama's boys... doG love 'em.


We had to wait quite a while before it was the boys' turns to be evaluated. During our wait, Bono started barking like a guard dog (which he is NOT). He kept barking, very LOUDLY, like he really MEANT it, and he wouldn't stop, no matter what I said or did. I tried to figure out what he was barking at. There was no one around, no people, no other dogs, no nuthin', but he just kept barking. Then I saw it. "It" was a big display of CAT calendars! Some of them were big enough that the cat on the cover looked life-size. That's my boy, barking at cardboard cats. Sheesh...

While Bono was being evaluated, Case and I waited outside the glassed-in playroom, watching him. I was holding Casey under my arm when this old guy walked up, got right in Casey's face, and said, "Boy, you sure are ugly." EXCUSE ME??!! I said, "He is NOT." Old Guy said, "Oh, he knows I'm just kidding." How would anyone know that, especially Case? Even I didn't know he was joking, and I still don't think he was. This incident just shows how mellow "Leann" is getting as we get older. Ten years ago, I'd have told Old Guy to ef off and die, then I'd have walked away.

But then there was the stupid woman driver I flipped off this week, and I felt good doing it. I was trying to merge onto the freeway, and I had my signal on. Stupid Woman would NOT let me in, even tho I was signaling and honking my horn. As I ran out of merge lane, I punched the gas pedal then cut in front of her. I flipped her off so hard and fast, I almost hurt myself doing it. Trust me, I left no doubt in her mind that I was royally pissed off. Then I left her in my proverbial dust - even if I did use a whole tank of premium-super-duper-rocket fuel in the process. But it was WORTH it. Hey, maybe I'm not so mellow, after all;-)

That's A Wrap!

Remember the investment company that kept calling me, and after I agreed to an appointment, they didn't even call? I wrote them off completely. This week, Ms. Investment Co. called and apologized for NOT calling at our agreed-to time, and she explained that she had been rushed to the hospital that morning. She was in the hospital for four days. OK, I can forgive that...once. So she asked if her assistant could call me to set up another appt. Sure. Why not? Whatever.... He did call, but I was out. I haven't called him back, but I will.

A while ago, I mentioned that I had bought the Site Build It! program for increasing traffic to www.furfection.com. Yesterday I dug in and completed three days worth of work in one. Granted, I was fried when I finished, but it was really hard to make myself stop and go to bed. The reason was that, the more I learned from the program, the more I wanted to know, and there's soooo much information to be had. I've always thought the Furfection website was well done, but I'm not feeling that way now.

Starting with my website keywords, there is so much room for improvement. For instance, I have something like 10-12 current keywords. But according to SBI!, I should have at least 75-100 to choose from. Uh-oh. So I did keyword searches for dog shampoo, pet shampoo, and other current keywords, only to find out they aren't good keywords at all. They have an online tool for finding the right keywords, and it's pretty time consuming - but worth it. What I'm thinking now, tho, is that I need to turn over my site to an SBI! expert and let them revamp it. If not, I'll be at my computer another 5-6 hours a day more than I already am. Big problem: There aren't that many hours in a day.

I remember being in this same situation last year; I had too many things to do and not enough time to get them done. Well, here I am again. Although I COULD have spent the entire day working on the site, I MADE myself stay away from my computer except to check email. Amazingly, I was able to get my hair cut, get my nails done, do laundry, shampoo my carpet and have a nice lunch with one of my favorite people. I even squeezed in an hour-long nap! I need to do this more often. When your tailbone hurts even after you've gotten away from your computer, you know you're spending too much time sitting.

Casey continues to act "normally" since we started walking him with a harness rather than attaching the leash to his collar. The boys are also being walked on separate leashes, since they pull so hard against each other when they're on the splitter. Fingers crossed that Case continues to mend whatever mystery injury he had.

After many 12 hour days this week, I'm ready to watch the rest of the Grammys. (I taped the second half.) BTW, way to go, Bono!!! (The human - not my dog;-)